I'm I a weird teenager?

[Ramon C]

Are you a "weird" teenager? Just because you do not follow the crowd and seem to have a semblance of intelligence and make your own decisions? I would say you are a mature teenager who is a leader and not a blind follower. Except for a few grammatical errors typical of teens so used to texting that they think it is either OK or, in girl terms, cute, you write with above average skills. Take away the multiple dots.... which is wrong, a few capitalization errors and the rest is excellent. Due to the marketing industry taking advantage of psychology and trendism in sales of whatever they want to teens and adults, we have become a nation of herds in our thinking. We get manipulated. Females are highly influenced by the action of others. Take the tattoo trend, the piercing trend, the sexual trends in pre teen to teen girls as to shaving pubic hairs, to start sex so early, etc. They are all indicative of herd mentality. You close with question as to the crowd you should hang with? Now, that surprised me. Totally. You say you are "bubbly" and you have friends. So, why must you feel left out with the subjects you do not like? Would that not be what is called "peer pressure" to be just like everyone else? Is that not what you are proud of? I rather see you be a leader and lead them out of their commonality or groupthing approach to life. If anything, you should be paying attention to others who are reaching beyond the common, and prosaic, teen life like you and moving forward. Teen life and years does not last very long and for the most part, teens just waste valuable time. Do this for me, read a book by Malcolm Gladwell, "Outliers." Malcolm is a brilliant writer and the subject of this book are the exceptional people that have reached beyond the norm. Actually, way,way,way beyond the norm because of the focused and dedicated time, most of their time, growing up developing their passion and skills and observing what they could learn. I do not know your age, school performance and special skills or passions you have. All I get a feel for is that you actually have a brain and a personality to match. In the female society there is just too much copycat activity going on which generates too much unhappiness because they tend to focus on superficial things, pay too much attention to beauty or social or personal or just chasing boys, that important psychological steps are missed. Plenty of girls graduate from high school and immediately get pregnant or move in with a man only to end up pregnant and alone. Tragic. Just tragic. Anyway, if you get Malcom's message and you develop a taste for more, Google him for he has other important books that have hit a spot seldom reached in our culture. He is just brilliant in his writing skills. Guess what? He was a teen himself not exactly like all of the others. Just like you. Inspiring or what? I shall close with this. A careful and disciplined approach to life has given me a successful life. Not perfect since that is impossible. But fruitful and fulfilling. At times it meant I had to wait for things I wished for. It meant I dedicated time and effort and money for other things. But eventually it paid off. By keeping a goal in mind you can weather many storrms. And that is one of the lessons learned from very, very, very successful people. Plenty of people have worked and struggled and made tons of money but are not happy. Others, live moderate lives and are very happy. On last book. The millonaire Next Door. It changed my life. It may also affect yours. Best of luck in life. What crowd to join? None. You make your own crowd. Think about it. Bye.